First appearance of Ben Urich. His close relationship with Daredevil is established quickly.
Lots of people, me included, give Frank Miller credit for basically creating the Daredevil that we know today. (Or, at least, the Daredevil we knew before Mark Waid took on the title two years ago and completely renovated it.) But Roger McKenzie’s brief run saw the introduction of Klaus Janson, who was at least 49% responsible for the great art during Miller’s run, it was written in a “noir” style that Marv Wolfman had approached but never embraced, and it focused on Heather Glenn, who was a huge part of the changes in DD’s character during Miller’s run. It also used Heather and Matt’s relationship in a way that we hadn’t seen before. Although Murdock had shared his identity with Karen Page, Karen was never really integral to Daredevil. She was a side character, like a bond girl. Glenn is fully enmeshed in the storyline.
We start with her dad’s funeral.
DD keeps hunting Purple Man to exonerate Heather’s father. Paladin keeps hunting Purple Man, too, but he wants him all to himself.
While Death-Stalker keeps hunting Daredevil.
Daredevil ultimately reaches a gauntlet of some of his biggest foes: Mister Hyde, Cobra, Gladiator, Jester, and, of course, the Purple Man himself.
In the final conflict, Purple Man figures out Daredevil is blind. He doesn’t figure out his entire secret identity–but this is a good chunk of it.
I understand that it’s easy to forget about McKenzie because Miller’s work was unlike anything that ever preceded it, and changed the entire art form. But McKenzie was damn good, and he laid a solid foundation for Miller.
Really, really good stuff. Art by Carmine Infantino (#152-153), Gene Colan (#154)
Note: I don’t usually give nonpowered, nonvigilante characters a tag unless they are prominent law enforcement like Captains Stacy and DeWolff, but Ben Urich gets into a lot of action sequences so I’m tagging him. I recognize this is inconsistent.